Crazy Taxi (Sega Dreamcast)

Going for the jump, from ‘Crazy Taxi’ on the Dreamcast.

http://darth-azrael.tumblr.com/post/177092228076/segacity-going-for-the-jump-from-crazy-taxi-on

Crazy Taxi was originally a Sega arcade game based on the Naomi architecture which was based on the Dreamcast making a Dreamcast port inevitable. Crazy Taxi was one of the most successful games on the Dreamcast selling over a million copies.

The concept is pretty simple. You race around town picking up fares and dropping them at their destinations This, of course, must be done in a limited time frame. You get more tips for doing crazy stunts. The game play reminds me a little of a cross between Outrun and the old Commodore 64 game Space Taxi (though I like Space Taxi a lot better). The game is played from a 3rd person point of view somewhat similar to games like Outrun but in a more open ended environment.

Crazy Taxi was released for the Dreamcast in early 2000. Because Sega abandoned the hardware market, the game was ultimately also ported to the PS2, Gamecube and PC. There have been a few sequels and a couple of spin-offs including the relatively recent Crazy Taxi Tycoon. However, this is more of a business management sim and not at all like the main games in the series. There hasn’t been a true sequel since Crazy Taxi 3: High Roller in 2002.

If you want to play the original, it’s hard to beat the original Dreamcast version. However, the ports are ok too. It is definitely a fun game (even if it is not as fun as Space Taxi) as are the two sequels. Crazy Taxi also made it’s way to online services for the PS3 and Xbox 360. If you like this game, in addition to the two sequels, there is also The Simpson’s: Road Rage. This game is so similar that they were sued by Sega for patent infringement. It’s essentially the same game with a Simpsons theme.

Images above are from the Sega Dreamcast version of the game. The last three came from Moby Games while the first one was taken from Tumblr.